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While making up and photo displays used for my husbands memorial , it occurred to me that, not just now, but maybe even always, old photos do not move me or take me back to the time they were taken.
They're interesting and some are fun to look through and maybe describe to my kids but there is no 'flash back' to the time or events.
Past houses, two of which were totally my 'creations' and both which I loved, don't make me miss them.
Pictures of my kids from birth on don't bring on nostalgia.
I enjoy seeing new ones they put up on FB.
Recent photos of the man I just lost are doing me in but the other younger guy in those old pictures has been gone a long time and I really only remember him intellectually, not emotionally.
I can look at those old photos all day and they don't stir up any emotion.
Am I just missing the sentimentality gene or do you also totally live now, in the present?
Old pictures do stir emotions in me. I certainly don't claim this as a superiority - it just is.
There are various ways we can "live in the past", namely with deep underlying attitudes which have not changed. For example, for me (at age 70) tattoos scream "lower class". Intellectually I realize that the attitude toward tattoos has changed, but I don't think I'll ever get over my feelings about tattoos, not at my age.
Am I just missing the sentimentality gene or do you also totally live now, in the present?
You're not the only one. I live very much in the present and have no emotional reaction/attachment to old family photos. I don't mind looking at silly/dorky ones and getting a laugh but otherwise just don't find them interesting.
So far I've been able to delegate selecting memorial tribute photos to others.
I'm sentimental and I get emotional about old photographs and letters. They take me right back in time and place. I live in the present though and I find that I get depressed if I spend too much time looking back at the past. A little bit of it is fun, too much is a drag.
I'm pathetic. Not only do I love old photos and such I regularly go on Google Street view and "walk around" my old neighborhoods in NYC.
I google-map-walk too... but in NJ, not NYC. It's fun to see what's the same (the house, the school) and what's changed (the stores in town center).
I love looking at the old photos. I have a handful of very old ones (my great grandparents in Europe) but most are from my parents... starting with them as teenagers and young lovers, and going forward through my life, my son's and my grandkids (their great-grands). Sometimes it's fun to look at a pic and try to remember who it is without peaking at the labels. Sometimes I look at a pic and say to myself... I remember when that happened.
But where I really get emotional is when I listen to the old songs. A song can take me right back to a specific place and time, and I remember exactly who was there. I love those shows on PBS with music from the 50s-60s-70s. Even bought some of their CD sets.
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